


Unknown Magic

by Iptfog



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 17:09:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7810264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iptfog/pseuds/Iptfog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A portrait wakes Madam Pince in the middle of the night and orders her to go to the library.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure where I'm going with this.  
> Suggestions are welcome.

Madam Pince hurried towards the library. She still didn't know how a portrait frame managed to get into her bedroom. The man in the frame had come from his portrait above her desk in the library. His name was Alfred Knight the inventor of the spells that protect nearly every bookshelf in the wizarding world. He had awoken her and told her to go to library. When she had asked why he simply said "Someone needs you." Then portrait and frame melted into the wall.  
'Who could need me?' she thought bitterly 'Almost everything I used to do for people was rendered unnecessary by that damned instant librarian spell Granger invented her third year.' Madam Pince was so glad that Granger hadn't returned this year with the others who had missed their seventh year. 'If I had had to listen to one more lecture about that muggle dewey decimal system I would have banned her from the library.'  
By that point she had arrived at the library doors. She was shocked to find them cracked open. She stepped through them and heard someone sobbing. Following the sound led her to the section on magical illnesses. There she found what seemed to be one of the twelve year old first years facing away from her sitting on the floor surrounded by books. He was muttering to himself around his sobs. "There's nothing.......I've read them all.........Don't know what to do now."  
Madam Pince felt her heart breaking. He sounded so desolate, so lost. "What's wrong, child?"  
He looked up startled before he vanished. Madam Pince heard invisible feet running from the library but was to shocked to move.  
His eyes had been glowing a brilliant sapphire. No whites, no pupil. It looked like his eyes had been replaced with gemstones.

*

Madam Pince watched for the child all the next day, but it stood to reason he had some way of concealing his eyes or someone would have noticed by now. So instead she watched for someone who seemed tired. Alfred had told her he had come every night since the year had started two months prior. She asked the teachers to watch as well stating she had noticed books being left off the shelves at night and peeves swore innocence. She asked Madam Pomfrey if she was missing any pepper up potions. She asked Snape if he was missing the ingredients for the same. She set charms to alert her if someone entered the library at night. And found them broken the next morning. She spent all night in the library once but it seemed he waited for her to go to her quarters and when she didn't he wouldn't show. For two weeks she tried everything she could think of and found no sign of her mysterious researcher. She was worried. He had been researching magical illnesses and now he seemed to be looking into dark curses with gradual effects. She finally did the thing she had been dreading.  
She went and spoke with Argus Filch.

*

"I need a portrait frame from storage, Argus." She stated bluntly. Madam Pince disliked Filch greatly since he had insisted she was unnecessary after Granger revealed that damn spell.  
"An' why would ya be needin' that?" Filch sneered. He still thought she was unnecessary even after Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall had refused to fire her at his request.  
"That's none of your concern." She gritted her teeth and remained civil no matter how badly she wanted to do otherwise.  
"Well then, I see no reason ta gettit fer ya." He said though a victorious grin.  
"Oh?" she drawled with a smirk. "Then I guess I'll have to make an official request through the headmistress. I'll be sure to let her know I came to you first and your refusal is the reason for the unnecessary paperwork I'll have to add to her already overfull desk." she said as she rose to leave his office.  
"All right ya blasted woman! What size do ya need?"  
"A mid-sized if you could. If not I can resize it as necessary." She paused. "Have you seen any students acting strangely?"  
Evidently she sounded more worried than she realized because Argus replied seriously "What happened?"  
Madam Pince desperately needed to unload some of her worry and she was one of the few who knew how deeply Filch cares about the students safety.  
"A portrait from the library somehow appeared in my bedroom and woke me in the middle of the night. He told me to go to library. That someone needed me. When I arrived I found a child sobbing surrounded by books on magical illnesses. When i asked what was wrong he gasped looked up at me and then vanished. No incantation. He didn't reach for an artifact. I didn't see his wand."  
"Why haven't ya told anyone?"  
"The terror on his face."she paused and whispered barely audible"and his eyes"  
"What was wrong with his eyes?"  
"They looked as if they had been replaced with glowing sapphires. The portrait told me he has been there every night since the year began. If I stay in the library he won't show. If I leave detection charms they appear to have been broken by a professional. No one is missing any pepper-up and none of the students are over tired. I don't know what to do."  
"How about this,disillusion me and I'll wait in the library tonight. I'll see which student it is and you can approach him tomorrow."   
"That's a wonderful idea! Wait, your accent is gone."  
Filch gave her a cheeky grin "Well I prefer people to underestimate me. I was in Slytherin you know."

*

At breakfast the next morning Filch passed her a slip of paper with a name on it.  
Jason Deleni--Slytherin


	2. Snape

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes Snape is alive for the simple reason that I don't want to create a character to replace him and I dislike Slughorn

Madam Pince headed to Snape's quarters after supper. After he had healed from Nagini's wounds, Snape disappeared for the summer. When asked why he returned to teach he said "I need something to fill my days. I would rather it be teaching than memories."  
Madam Pince knocked on his door and resigned herself to waiting a while, he was usually busy. Suprisingly he answered almost immediately. "Ah, Madam Pince what can I help you with?"  
"I need a meeting with you and one of your students. Now if possible."  
"Who and why?"  
"Jason Deleni has spent the entirety of every night since school began in the library. He is reseaching magical illnesses and dark curses with gradual effects. I have reason to believe he does this because he thinks he is dying."  
Snape stared at her made to ask a question but said instead "make yourself at home. I'll go and get him." as he led her to his sitting room.  
A few minutes later Snape return with a scared looking Jason. The second he saw Madam Pince he made to run, but Snape grabbed him by the shoulder and gently forced him to sit on the couch. "Running will solve nothing." He said sternly.  
"What have you told him? And how did you find out who i was? You didn't know before!" Jason demanded.  
"I have told him what you are researching and how often, nothing more. As to how I found you, I enlisted the help of one who won't reveal your secret if there is any chance it will do more harm than good. Neither will I for that matter."  
"You already have!"  
"And has any harm come to you from it?"  
"It will."  
"How do you know?"  
Jason hesitated long enough that Madam Pince thought he might not say anything more.  
"Because famous Harry Potter was a Parselmouth and everyone treated him like a leper. I'm a nobody and my secret is even scarier."  
"What..." Snape began but Jason cut him off.  
"The sun about to set you'll see then." He stood up removed his shirt and faced away from them. Just them a blue light bloomed from between his shoulder blades, raced around under his right arm, across his chest, under his left arm and ended almost under his right arm again. Where the light had been it left the skin black. On closer inspection it looked less like skin and more like stone. Jason turned to face them and opened his eyes bathing the room in a blue glow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter but I'm trying to figure out where I want to go with this any ideas would be a godsend or merlinsend as it were. Sofar I've got invisibility doesn't need to sleep and detection charms just sorta melt around him.


End file.
